Saturday, January 19, 2013

When a School board denies a Christian child an education in Texas, legislation multiplies

RE: School Kicks Out Sophomore in RFID- Student ID flap

UPDATE: 1/21/13 -- CNSNews.com clarified Andrea Hernandez refused all participation in the newer RFID badge system, including the new badge itself at John Jay High.  She requested to use her old ID to communicate distinction, as refusing to participate in the program opposed to giving the appearance of blending in with other children compliant with the program. 

BTC - WIRED.com's mods may not publish my comments.  My efforts to inform to Dave Kravets concerning a $300 million education disbursement went directly to the Internet ethers, unrecognized. 

That's okay. That's why when Brooking's doesn't like what I have to say, I can publish here.  BeatTheChip is a pretty reliable public interest source on identity surveillance measures anyway. 

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Here is what went muzzled:
"John Jay is simply embarassed. They underestimated the endurance run Texans will go opposed to invasive state-sponsored tracking devices. Everyone does. It appears they rescinded an offer to allow Hernandez to wear the badge without the RFID chip over a week ago during court proceedings.  The day the news broke a $300 million disbursement for education came from the Texas Land Commission.  John Jay and the NISD without a doubt would qualify for that funding for more immediate concerns or could even negotiate on funding ... {to} reconsider their badge program and perhaps soften the landing for any fiscal losses in adopting the program and hiring lawyers to fight this case.  It won't change the fact that there are 2 bills in the Texas legislature now to cut off possible funding for adopting RFID in the future. At the end of the day the NISD was duped. They overinvested in a system without calculating public support or privacy risk mitigation ahead of time. That means a business loss to the school as an investor.  They're now sacrificing Hernandez to ego and attempting to make her lose her education.  Whomever is in charge is losing the forest for the trees.  There is an election coming up.  We know there will be a challenger to give that chair [to someone] who might make Texas education better by well thought out choices with the public's funding vs. costly public embarassments."

John Jay High is fighting to *not* educate a Christian child in Texas.  The NISD's case with the public hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of making it if they don't get a course correction matching the public's real interests. 

Good luck. Texas Senator Estes joined the effort, filing a bill to ban RFID in schools, aligning legislation with Rep. Kolkhorst's House bills,  according to the Weatherford Democrat yesterday. 


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Redux Intl. Edition: China's real name Internet mandate


NSTIC: Oh.. it's an ID card for  everything online
TOP STORY

A National Digital ID, Courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service?
c/o Bloomberg
"When China passed a new law two weeks ago requiring people to give their real names when signing up for Internet and phone service, it raised alarms over the surveillance implications for the world’s largest population of Web users. It also highlighted what may be an uncomfortable reality for U.S. netizens: a national digital ID, which essentially is what China is proposing, isn’t entirely a foreign concept. The U.S. is also slowly moving to a system where online personas are inextricably linked to real-world identities, an idea with huge privacy and security implications. 
The tactics and enforcement mechanisms being explored in China and the U.S. are worlds apart, but the central idea is similar: knowing someone’s real name improves accountability online. That’s a double-edged sword, though, depending on who’s doing the accounting. 
The White House’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, or NSTIC, is leading the government’s efforts in this area."
:::MORE HERE:::
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